BRUSSELS — The EU’s most powerful political group has called on the European Commission to slam the brakes on the EU Emissions Trading System, demanding slower tightening of emissions caps, more free pollution allowances, and new protections for Europe’s dirtiest industries.
The demands are set out in a position paper seen by POLITICO and sent to EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra by the center-right European People’s Party — the largest group in the European Parliament, whose members include Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Hoekstra himself.
Two people within the EPP confirmed the formal demands were recently given to Hoekstra, who is overseeing a hotly anticipated review of the ETS due July 15.
The paper proposes reducing the speed of the linear reduction factor — the rate at which the cap on how much pollution is allowed is reduced each year — by at least 1 percentage point, a move that would likely make it harder to reach the bloc’s goal of reducing net emissions by 90 percent by 2040. Currently the cap is set to fall by 4.4 percent a year from 2028, but under the EPP proposal it would fall to no more than 3.4 percent.
